According to a study presented at the virtual 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting, patients hospitalized for testicular carcinoma experience significant financial toxicity, due to rising costs that are disproportionate to length of stay at the hospital and treatment received.

This study by Saqib Abbasi, MD, Kansas University Cancer Center, Westwood, KS, et al, assessed the health care burden of  patients with testicular carcinoma hopsitalizd for chemotherapy, co-morbidities, and other complications associated with mortality.

Using data collected between 2002 and 2017 through the National Inpatient Sample, annual trends for inpatient mortality, length of stay, and total costs of admission were examined for patients with testicular carcinoma receiving chemotherapy in addition to ifosfamide and cisplatin in an in-patient setting.

A univariate logistic regression analysis was performed in order to identify the effect of comorbid conditions and acute inpatient complications on in-patient mortality.

Between the 2002 and 2017, hospital admission rates among patients with testicular carcinoma receiving ifosfamide and cisplatin based treatment remained about the same (weighted national estimate of 2261 patients), however, the length of stay increased from 4.6 days to 5.5 days, and the cost of stay increased from $26,140 to $53,193.

Mortality rates for in-patient care were 0.2% in 2002 and less than 0.1% in 2017. Patients with heart failure as a comorbid condition were at higher risk for mortality, while patients with acute complications like kidney injury, infection, or neurotoxicity had significantly high mortality.

“The increase in cost of stay is out of proportion to increases in length of stay. Indicating a disproportionate increase in financial toxicity for these patients,” wrote Dr Abbasi and colleagues, concluding, “Care needs to be taken to specifically identify patients at risk for renal failure and infectious complications.”—Marta Rybczynski